While many consumers savor the silence of a hybrid vehicle in all-electric mode, advocacy groups are pointing out the dangers of noiseless cars to blind pedestrians.
The National Federation of the Blind took its campaign for minimum vehicle noise standards to the Maryland senate yesterday. That state is considering setting up a task force to study the issue. The federation says lawmakers in several other states are mulling stronger legislation.
The NFB also is lobbying Congress and the United Nation’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations. Meanwhile the Society of Automotive Engineers has a committee that is researching technologies that might warn pedestrians and cyclists of approaching hybrid cars.
